


Do you love him?

by Autumnalpalmetto



Series: Twinyard week [4]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Family Bonding, M/M, Recreational Drug Use, small mentions of Andrew's time being forced on drugs and baltimore, this is mostly dialog
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-24 16:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21340924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumnalpalmetto/pseuds/Autumnalpalmetto
Summary: Andrew goes out of town with Nicky to hang out with his friends from Eden's while Aaron and Neil stay home to avoid the recreational drugs.Twinyard appreciation week day 4- Aaron with Andrew's people
Relationships: Neil Josten & Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: Twinyard week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540792
Comments: 29
Kudos: 335
Collections: Twinyards Appreciation Week 2019





	Do you love him?

Neil sat on the counter in Matt’s room with Andrew standing between his legs playing some game on his phone. They were waiting for Nicky to finished getting read so they could head out for a ‘guys night’. Neither Neil nor Andrew fully understood the premise, but since the girls were locked away in their room having a ‘girl's night’ the guys had to too. Kevin and Aaron were already waiting for them by the car, but Nicky was taking forever. 

Andrew’s phone buzzed in his hand, Neil made a point not to look at the message even though he had a clear view of the screen. Matt was talking about the latest Exy game anyway, which was more interesting than trying to spy on his partner. 

“What do you think?” Andrew asked, holding the phone up for Neil to see. 

The screen held a message from Roland asking if Andrew and his lot wanted to come down some weekend and smoke with him.

“Take Nicky,” Neil said. He turned back to Matt and picked up the conversation while Andrew typed out the message. Matt tried to ask what that was about, but Neil changed to subject to Florida’s new striker. 

Neil thought it would be good for Andrew to spend some time with his friends away from campus and maybe get the chance to relax. Neil had no interest in weed or cracker dust, but he knew Andrew and Nicky did. There was no way Kevin would ever smoke something and weed was just a bit too close to home for it not to be a danger for Aaron. Andrew had stayed away from all recreational drugs since Neil had asked him to last January, and Neil briefly wondered if he should be saying no here. Their deal only extended to cracker dust, so he really had no say over what Andrew chose to do with his body.

When Nicky came out of the bathroom, Andrew set Neil a look. He slid off the counter, pulling Matt’s sleeve along the way out the door.

“What’s up?” Matt asked when they were in the hallway.

“Andrew’s making plans with one of his and Nicky’s friends and he wanted to talk to him for a minute,” Neil said. He didn’t miss the look Matt sent him. “What?”

“Andrew has friends?”

“What? Of course, Andrew has friends.” Neil was only slightly insulted by Matt’s question. It wasn’t like they got off on the right foot when they met. “He’s my best friend.”

Matt put his hand over his heart and sucked in a tense breath. “You wound me. I thought I was your best friend. I just meant like he never hangs out with anyone.”

“Yeah, I know.” Neil took a moment to find the right words to not give too much about Andrew away. “He doesn’t do things for himself a lot because he’s too worried about keeping everyone else safe. We’re working on it.”

“Bro, that almost sounds like a healthy relationship.” Matt laughed at Neil’s annoyed face. “I just mean like I never thought of him as… you know… like a person with friends and interests and shit.”

“That’s because you like to make him into a monster.”

“I mean…” Matt rubbed at the back of his head. “Even you have to admit he’s an asshole.”

“Oh yeah, he’s totally an asshole, but he’s not a monster.”

Throughout the rest of the night, Neil saw Matt looking at Andrew a little differently. Maybe Matt was starting to see him in a softer light. They went to dinner at the mall then made a ‘quick stop’ to a video arcade that ended up taking three hours. Neil wouldn’t say he was mad when everyone was having so much fun. 

The preparation for Andrew going away for a weekend went a lot easier than they had expected them to. Andrew had informed Kevin and Aaron he was leaving with Nicky and not them, and neither one seemed to care. Kevin decided to spend the weekend with his father, while Aaron wanted to use the time to catch up on some studying and video games. 

On Saturday morning, in their dorm bedroom, Neil watched Andrew pack for the trip. He shoved two sets of clothes and two sets of pajamas into the bag.

“What are you going to do while I’m gone?” Andrew asked without looking up from his bag. 

“It’s a day and a half, I don’t see why this is such a big deal.” Neil saw Andrew roll his eyes. To be fair, they hadn’t spent a weekend apart since march. “I’m going to hang out with Matt and make sure Aaron’s eating in between studying because I know without Nicky’s normal reminder he would forget.”

Andrew huffed. “So you’re going to check up on him?”

“Of course, I know you don’t like leaving him unattended, but I promise you he’s a big boy and can handle himself.”

Andrew turned to Neil and walked him back into the wall. “And what about you? Can you handle yourself? It seems like every time I turn around you’ve gotten yourself into a new mess.”

Neil laughed and leaned in for a quick kiss, not bothered at all when it turned into a long heated one.

“I promise you I will not get into any trouble when you’re gone. I’ll just hang out with Matt and annoy Aaron,” Neil said when they broke apart.

Andrew kissed him again. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, trouble seems to find you wherever you go, little rabbit.”

“That’s not my fault. I’m just living my life the best that I can.” Neil smiled at him. “No trouble this time. Go have fun with your friends.”

Andrew kissed him once more then turned and grabbed his bag. They headed next door to collect Nicky, and so Andrew could say goodbye to his brother.

In their living room, Nicky made a show of saying goodbye to Neil and Aaron, while Andrew just waved and said ‘bye. 

After Andrew and Nicky left Matt and Neil headed out for a late breakfast. Neil decided to play nice and picked Aaron up a coffee and pastry on their way out of the cafe. Aaron was so focused on his bio book that he didn’t even notice Neil putting the snacks next to him. Careful not to dump the drink onto the book, Neil shoved them both closer until the cup and the pastry bag were touching the book.

“Oh, thanks,” Aaron said without looking up. 

Matt and Neil settled down on the couch to start a new racing game, and Neil kept looking over to Aaron every few minutes to make sure he was actually eating his food. After a couple of hours of gameplay, Neil got tired if taking fast cars around the same few tracks over and over. While Matt was excited every time they made enough money to buy a new car or upgrade one of their current ones, Neil could not have cared less.

Deciding to let Matt have his fun, Neil went on the lunch run himself. He collected enough food to feed them all for at least a couple of hours and headed back. Both Aaron and Matt were in the same positions he had left them in. Neil did not understand how Matt could spend all day playing video games or how Aaron could spend hours upon hours sitting at his desk bent over a boring textbook. 

Neil spread their chips, sandwiches, and salads out over the coffee table and called Aaron over. It was a pointless endeavor, Aaron tended to get so focused on his books that he couldn’t hear anything happening around him, probably a result of living with Nicky for so long. Neil knew that Nicky could sit down and study when he wanted to, but he tended to forget just how loud he was being when others were studying and he wasn’t. 

After another five minutes, Neil picked up Aaron’s food and set it on top of his book, with a paper towel under it to protect the pages. 

“Is it noon already?” Aaron looked around the room.

“Buddy, it’s almost two,” Matt said from the couch.

“Huh,” Aaron said with a shrug. “Thanks for the food.” 

With Aaron eating his lunch and Matt back to playing video games, Neil decided to head back to his own room and get some work done. He pulled his math book out and managed to get two assignments done before Matt texted and asked where he had gone. Neil responded that he had some work to do and would be over soon, then got started on his essay that wasn’t due until Wednesday. Andrew being gone was going to end up helping his grades, usually, his weekends were full of relaxing with Andrew and then cramming all of his work in at the last minute. 

With a solid outline done and all of his sources found Neil decided to head back over and see what the others were doing. To no one’s surprise, Aaron was still at his desk and Matt was on the couch playing another game. Neil made Matt get up and stretch out by asking him to go see what the girls were doing. Then he headed over to Aaron’s desk. He reached out and covered the page with his hand. 

“Come up, stand up and stretch out,” Neil said in his captain’s voice.

“I will at the end of this chapter.” Aaron leaned forward like he was trying to read around Neil’s hand. 

Neil pulled the chair back with his free hand while keeping the other on the page. “I swear to god I will make you run laps on Monday. Stand up and stretch.”

“Jesus, fine.” Aaron stood up and used the back of the chair to twist around and pop his back. “What time is it?”

“5:15.”

“Seriously?”

Neil rolled his eyes. “Yes seriously, why do you think I’m bothering you about stretching?”

“I don’t know, because you’re an asshole?” Aaron twisted his back the other way and made it pop again.

“Next time I’ll let you starve then.” Neil wasn’t serious, even if Aaron wasn’t Andrew’s brother he would still check up on him because that was his job as captain. 

“I said thank you, didn’t I?”

Neil rolled his eyes and went to look through their fridge. Cafeteria food on the weekends was sparse, there was only one choice, and it was never good, but the fridge didn’t have more than some beer and salsa. Aaron stretched out on the floor until Matt came back, then they made a plan for dinner. 

While Matt ordered some pizza, Aaron put in a new game and told Neil to sit down. Aaron handed him the controller and gave him some basic instructions on how to play. He was better than Nicky at making his directions clear and easy to follow, but he was less patient than Matt was. 

“Andrew’s calling,” Neil said as he paused the game he was playing. 

Being stuck with Matt and Aaron while Andrew went off to smoke with Nicky and Roland wasn’t exactly what Neil wanted to be doing on Saturday night, but he knew he and Andrew needed to have friends and spend some time apart. He was sat on the couch with a controller in his hand playing some Lego video game that Matt said was so easy a child could beat it. So far Neil was failing spectacularly. 

Neil handed Aaron the controller and answered the phone. “Everything all right?”

“Nicky and Rolland are laughing too much,” Andrew said. His voice was off queuing Neil into the fact that the smoking had started already. 

“Interesting.” Neil put the phone in speaker and sat it on the coffee table. “You’re on speaker, Matt and Aaron are here too.”

“What are you doing?” Andrew asked. 

“Aaron’s teaching me how to play Lego... what’s this one again?”

“Lego Indiana Jones,” Aaron said with an added eye roll. 

“How’s that going?” Andrew asked.

“Neil fucking sucks,” Aaron replies before Neil had the chance to open his mouth. 

“It’s not my fault my fine motor movement is fucked,” Neil said. Ever since Lola burned the palms of his hands and his knuckles video games had been nearly impossible to play. His handwriting wasn’t fairing much better either. 

“Hmm,” Andrew said in a low annoyed voice. “If only there was some way to help that. Maybe a program of sorts?”

“I’m not going to physical therapy and I am not having this argument again.”

“Physical therapy could help reduce pain, help improve movement, and prevent future injury,” Aaron said with a raised eyebrow. 

Neil like it better when Aaron and Andrew weren’t close enough to back each other up. Two against one was bad enough. Two against one, when the two people he was against were smart than he was and just as stubborn, was impossible. 

Bonding between the brothers was amazing, Neil didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize that, but being on the receiving end of both of their judgment at the same time was not easy. 

“What if we made an at-home physical therapy?” Aaron asked as he paused the game and grabbed the phone and bringing it closer to him. The question was clearly directed at Andrew so Neil just rolled his eyes. “Even some light stretching could help.”

Andrew hummed in response. “Can you come up with something?”

“I’ll ask Katelyn, she knows more about that than I do.”

Neil leaned toward the phone, taking the chance to change the subject. “How’s it going?”

“They laugh too much,” Andrew said. Neil could visualize the slightly more annoyed than normal face he was making to match his tone of voice. 

“Yeah, you said that.” Neil shifted as Aaron but the phone down on the couch. “Where are you?”

“Our room, they got too annoying.”

“If you smoke in our room-”

“I know.”

Aaron eyed him for a moment. Neil wondered if he had ever heard Andrew talk this much since he’d gotten sober. Technically, he wasn’t completely sober now, but a bit of marijuana wasn’t anywhere near the drugs he had been on for years. Andrew wasn’t saying a lot compared to some of the conversations they had had, but it was significantly more than he bothered to do with other people. 

“I’m bored,” Andrew said over the phone. 

“You’re always bored,” Aaron said exactly what Neil had been thinking.

“I’m more bored than normal smart ass.”

“My DS is on my bedside table,” Aaron said it like he was stating a fact and not offering it to Andrew.

“Do you have pokemon here?”

“Yeah, it should be in there,” Aaron said. Seeing them interacting like real brothers brought a warm feeling to Neil’s chest that he couldn’t quite name. 

“Hey, Neil,” Andrew said, the sound muffled like he was moving the phone away for a moment. “You have to come with me next time.”

“I don't want to smo-”

“I want McDonald's and I have no way to get McDonald's.”

Aaron and Neil both laughed, sharing a quick look of amusement.

“You want me to come with you just to be an errand boy?” Neil asked. He hoped Andrew wouldn’t be able to hear the laugh in his voice.

“Yep.” Andrew popped the p like a frustrated child. “I’m hungry.”

Neil laughed again, this version of high Andrew was a lot more fun than the forced high version of the past. This was Andrew, but slightly more relaxed, whereas in the past he had been almost a different person. 

“I know you brought food with you.”

Andrew huffed, almost a growl. “It’s not McDonald’s.”

Aaron laughed this time, covering his mouth with his hand so Andrew wouldn’t hear it over the phone. 

“Go get the DS from Aaron’s room and some snacks,” Neil suggested. The change in the subject should distract him enough for him to forget about the food that he wanted. 

“Okay, bye.”

And the line went dead. The distraction had worked a little bit too well. Aaron and Neil both laughed at the abrupt ending. Matt came out of the bedroom a moment later, informing them the pizza was there and left to go collect it.

“Does he always talk that much?” Aaron asked while Matt was gone.

Neil scratched at the back of his head. “Sometimes, but not very often.”

Aaron got up to get a drink. He fidgeted with the glass of water in his hands as he looked Neil over. It was clear that he had something he wanted to say, but he was either still figuring it out or he didn’t want to be interrupted by Matt coming back in.

Matt came back a little while later, breaking Aaron and Neil out of their awkward silence. He sat two of the three pizzas on the coffee table and carried the other one back into the kitchen. 

“Hey, so Dan wants to watch a movie,” Matt said, tossing his keys back and forth between his hands.

Aaron shot him a look. “Go hang out with your girlfriend, Boyd. I don’t need you to stick around out of pity.”

Matt laughed but took his advice, as he left with his pizza he called back to them. “Don’t kill each other.”

They sat on opposite ends of the couch, watching reruns of some comedy show while they ate. Neil thought about going back to his room, but all he had waiting for him were old Exy games and next week’s homework. When they finished their pizza, Aaron put the boxes in the fridge and put the difficult Lego game back on. He handed Neil the controller, and they started tag-teaming the levels. With Aaron doing most of the work, it was a lot easier to complete each one. 

“Do you love him?” Aaron asked without looking away from the screen.”

“Who?” Neil said dryly. “Andrew?”

“No, I meant Matt. Yeah, dumb ass, Andrew.”

“I don’t know,” Neil said. He felt like this conversation could shape the way Aaron saw him and he needed to be honest. “I’ve never loved anyone before. How can you tell?”

Aaron looked at him with a raised eyebrow, turning back to the screen when his character got shot. “You can just tell. Katelyn makes everything better just by being there, she doesn’t even have to do anything. She walks in the room and suddenly everything’s a hundred times better for no reason. Just cause she’s there. And like I can’t not look at here if she’s around. It’s like she’s the center of the universe. I don’t fucking know man. She makes me feel better about the world. She makes me want to be a better person, like make the world better for her.”

“Where is she anyway?” Neil asked.

“Don’t change the subject.” Aaron paused the game and looked directly at him. “She’s hanging out with her sister.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say then!”

“The truth maybe?” Aaron sounded annoyed then. “If you can do that.”

Neil ignored the jab and thought about what Aaron had said. “I don’t know if I love him, but he makes me feel safe. And like he’s so strong that he makes me want to be that strong too. Not like strength strength, but like he’s a strong person. I do not know what I’m trying to say. I stopped running for him. I don’t want to run away from this because I’d be running away from him and I don’t think I could ever move on from that.”

He stopped then, feeling vulnerable, but also because he was rambling and not making any sense. Aaron looked him over again, smiling slightly. He turned back to the game and pressed play, then shot Neil an annoyed look when his character died because Neil wasn’t paying attention. 

“That sounds like love to me,” Aaron said a few minutes later.

Neil swallowed, suddenly overheating. “Maybe. I don’t know. Don’t tell Andrew.”

“I won’t.”

“Seriously.” Neil could hear the panic in his own voice. “I don’t want to overwhelm him.”

“Hey,” Aaron said, keeping his voice calm and collected. “I said I won’t. That’s not my place.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah,” Aaron snorted. “Okay.” 


End file.
